Judge, 1917-07-21 · page 8 of 28
Judge — July 21, 1917 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 1900s women's fashion and rural attitudes toward luxury and necessity. **"A Ballade to Sylvia"** mocks the "barrel skirt"—a tubular, unflattering silhouette that was fashionable at the time. The poet laments he cannot write romantic verse about a woman wearing such an ungainly garment, finding it aesthetically uninspiring compared to previous fashions. The two comic strips below satirize rural economic priorities: In "Retribution," a farmer's daughter refuses a suitor who visits nightly. In "Another Thing Entirely," Mr. Gap Johnson declines a newspaper subscription as an unaffordable luxury during hard times—yet supports a dozen dogs and plans circus trips for his fourteen children. The editor's sarcasm highlights the contradiction between claiming poverty while indulging in actual luxuries. "In the Garden" is romantic poetry unrelated to satire. The humor targets both changing women's fashion and rural hypocrisy about financial hardship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Ballade to Sylvia LIKE to write a bit of verse, A blithe ballade or rondeau gay That will a maiden’s charms rehearse In just a light and merry way. But fashions of passing day and alert; And what t can I sa y barrel skirt! asperse The modern modish maid's array; ‘Those harem skirts were not so worse, Although exceeding brief their stay; I wrote a villanelle to May, Slim, in her silken sheath begirt; But somehow, I can’t lilt a lay To Sylvia in a barrel skirt! Some jests and gibes I might disburse, About the barrel hoops that sway— Or sing in measure trite and ters The staves that wood my mood convey. But Pegasus will not obey My repartee is poor and pert; Somehow, my fancies will not stray To Sylvia in a barrel skirt! L’Emoi: Prince, ‘tis small skill I here display, As with my Muse I idly flirt; Yet would I fain throw this bouquet To Sylvia, in a barrel skirt! —Carolyn Wells Far be it from me to the Keep me uncertain ¢ dickens To Sylvia, in a Buckles. your Paw sa me coming over ‘most every night to set up with you?” / ’ ( \ \ Summer Girls - Retribution anything about asked young Huck replied the eldest daughter of Mr. Gap Johnson, of Rumpus Ridge. Ark. ‘lows it s cept that once in a while he rves me 4 t" _ Farmer Brown—So Hi Perkins’s son has been analyzing the soil on the old farm since he got back from Agricultural College? that 90% cf it is suitable only for golf, and che balance for tennis courts! Farmer jreene—Yes—he claims Another Thing Entirely “NOPE!” said Mr. Gap Johnson, of Rumpus Ridge, Ark., in declining the tender of the editor of the Weekly Clarion, “To tell the truth, I can’t afford to take your paper. This has been a tough season with us, and until I know how crops are going to turn out I hain’t got any money to fool away.” * But we notice that you are supporting about a dozen dogs, and we overheard you tell a friend that you were going to our wife and fourteen children to reus next week.” Aw, shore! I hain’t so thundering poor yet that I can’t afford the need- cessities of life. It’s the luxuries that I'm obleeged to cut out.” —~Tom P. Morgan. IN THE GARDEN By CLINTON SCOLLARD BOUT the glamoured shut of day I see her down the garden stray. Her touch is light as the moth’s wing About the lily fluttering. Her grace is greater than the grace Of any pansy in the place. Within her eyes there is a hue No larkspur blossom ever knew. One bud she kisses till it glows, And I—I would I were the rose! comicbooks.com